The Great Outdoors
by tfloosh
Summary: Despite our efforts, we can't get them to grow domestically yet. The princess can only thrive out here in the wild.


Link readied their horses. Princess Zelda was scheduled to visit the Royal Ancient Tech Lab today, but Link had come to know that these visits were really a cover to get out of the castle. Purah and Robbie were very good about keeping up the pretense of a 'royal inspection.'

The last time Zelda had taken such a visit, it was not long after Link had been appointed as her knight, and she had ventured into the Tabantha region to inspect an ancient shrine without Link. Now their relationship was much more amicable, and Zelda even seemed to enjoy his presence.

Once they left Castletown, Link turned to the Princess, "Where are we off to today. Princess?"

"I thought we could stay by the tech lab today," Zelda mused. "I could keep working with the Sheikah Slate, and we could just enjoy the great outdoors."

"You must have had a good day yesterday," Link felt the ghost of a smile cross his face. Zelda's sharp eyes caught it, and she smiled back.

"Father praised the report I had ghost-written with Purah," Zelda beamed. "He called the new information on the Guardians and the Sheikah Slate invaluable toward out impending fight with Ganon. If only I could devote more of my time to research. There is so much we still have to learn."

Link listened to Zelda lecture on and on about the research that was going on at the tech lab and how they were so close to being able to direct the Guardians with commands. She finally stopped when they reached the field just north of the tech lab.

"Here should be a good spot," she dismounted, leaving her white horse to graze. "I want to gather some samples and take some new pictures with the Slate."

Link nodded and let her voice wash over him. He was never much of a conversationalist to begin with, but Zelda was content to monologue about the different properties of the plants, herbs, and insects. She snapped pictures of anything and everything. They eventually wondered toward a flower field. Zelda sighed and took a picture looking back at Hyrule Castle.

"Such a beautiful prison," she murmured. Link pretended not to hear.

Zelda kneeled down in the flowers and started snapping picture after picture on the Sheikah Slate.

"These flowers we have in Hyrule aren't just beautiful," she smiled. "They're also quite useful as ingredients for a variety of things."

Link looked over her shoulder. Zelda had taken to photography, as she called it, quite well once they discovered the camera feature on the Slate. Her pictures were exceptional in Link's opinion. But as Link was sneaking a peak of the Slate, Zelda gasped. She leaned down slowly, and Link looked to see what had captured her attention.

"This one here is called the Silent Princess," she said softly, as if disturbing the lone flower would make it disappear. "It's a rare, endangered species."

Zelda crawled a little closer to the small flower, and Link followed suit.

"Despite our efforts, we can't get them to grow domestically yet," she glanced back at him. "The princess can only thrive out here in the wild."

She reached out as if to touch the flower, but paused before she got too close.

"All that we can hope," she straightened up. "Is that the species will be strong enough to prosper on its own."

Link felt he knew why Zelda felt such passion for the beautiful plant. _The princess can only thrive out here in the wild._ He leaned a fraction closer. He should say something, tell Zelda she was never alone, remind her that she is most definitely strong enough to prosper and awaken the sealing power within her.

But then she gasped and lunged forward, "Is that what I think it is?!"

Her hands closed around something in the grass. Link followed her movements with confusion.

"Look at this," she turned around holding her cupped hands out toward him. "I don't believe it, but I actually caught one." She shuffled forward excitedly, and Link had seen her in this state more than enough to be wary of whatever she had in her hands.

"This delicacy is known to have very, very potent effects under the proper circumstances," she said very quickly. This put Link on edge; nothing caught raw in the wild could ever be called a 'delicacy.' Zelda opened her hands with a little 'ta-da' to reveal a frog. It ribbited as Zelda all but shoved the frog under his nose.

"Research from the castle shows ingesting one of these can actually augment certain abilities," she continued excitedly. Now Link was scared. "We wouldn't be in a controlled environment out here, but with your level of physical fitness you'd be a perfect candidate for the study!"

Link's jaw almost dropped. Did she really want him to eat a raw, live frog?

"Go on!" she smiled and thrust the frog at him. It hopped in her hands and gave a ribbit. "Taste it!"

Link fell backwards as Zelda kept leaning forwards with the frog in her hands. Its beady, yellow eyes seemed to be staring at him.

"I'm not going to eat a frog, Princess," he gasped as she only continued her push forward.

"Please, Link," she rolled her eyes. "You don't have to eat it. Just a lick would suffice."

"I'm not going to lick a frog either," Link haphazardly crawled backwards. This was not how he thought the day would be going.

"But, if I'm not mistaken, this frog could help enhance one's speed of movement," Zelda explained quickly. "It's called a hot-footing frog for nothing, you know."

"But it's just so gross," he blanched. Goddess above, he really didn't want to lick a frog. But Zelda's eyes were pleading with him. "At least let me cook it first."

"That could significantly lower the frog's ability to augment your speed," she frowned.

"Either we cook the frog or release it back into the wild," Link said sternly.

"Fine," Zelda lifted her hands, but the frog was no longer there. "Oh, no."

The devastated look on her face was too much for Link. He stood up and adjusted the strap of the sword on his back.

"I'll go find a new one."

Her face instantly brightened, "Oh, Link, thank you so much. I'll start a fire so we can cook the frog."

She quickly got to work, and Link sighed as he started hunting for another hot-footed frog.


End file.
